Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
Toronto - Many who live in Ontario feel they owe their loyalty to countries thousands of miles away and they need to put Canada first.In the most recent example, thousands of ethnic Tamils blocked this city's main downtown street for five days, causing huge inconvenience, to focus attention on civil war in Sri Lanka, and 15 were arrested.
They had a right to protest and express valid concerns, particularly that relatives and friends were in danger in the last stages of a losing, bloody rebellion in which human rights have been violated by both sides.
Ontarians often are apathetic toward abuses of human rights abroad and they should protest more, not less. The legislature has set up a procedure to protest against abuses of rights abroad, but rarely uses it. The inconveniences the demonstrators caused also were minor compared to the sufferings on the battleground itself.
But they could have demonstrated at other locations and caused fewer disruptions. Some of the 200,000 ethnic Tamils in the Toronto area have indicated they will continue to protest and are well organized.
Ontario now has a tradition of disputes that originated abroad being pursued here in which some residents have shown they feel allegiance to other countries. Not all involve the province's recent influx of immigrants.
Some prominent, long-established members of Ontario's Jewish community, well known for being active Liberals, switched their support to the federal Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2006 solely on the ground he was more supportive of Israel in its long-running dispute with Palestinians than the federal Liberals. The defectors, including Heather Reisman, a member of the federal Liberals` executive committee and chair of a key group that recommended policy, and her husband, Gerry Schwartz, a confidante of former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, paid for a newspaper advertisement praising Harper for "standing by" Israel in its attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Arguments are fierce on both sides of this issue, but when Canadians switch from one party to another solely because it is more supportive of a foreign country, and disregard the huge range of issues, mainly domestic, on which voters normally choose, it raises questions about how committed they are to Canadian concerns.
 When Yugoslavia disintegrated, Ontarians of Serbian and Croatian origin traded blows outside the legislature and some in both groups went back to fight for what they still called "our homeland," which prompts concerns about how attached they are to the country in which live.
A gasoline bomb was thrown at a consulate here and police seized arms meant for Croatia at an airport. Croats wrote "the only good Serb is a dead Serb" and an MPP lost his seat after saying he would never live next door to a Serb.
Sikhs have fought here with swords and daggers over events in the country they came from. A dispute over who had the right to call an area "Macedonia" brought 10,000 Ontarians of Greek ancestry on Toronto streets. Police have to separate supporters of Israel and Palestine whenever they march.
Three Ontarians of Irish origin were convicted of attempting to smuggle guns to help dissidents in that country. One thousand five hundred Muslims marched in Toronto demanding author Salman Rushdie should be murdered for allegedly insulting their religion.
Those who come to live in Canada and find much safer, peaceful homes here should leave quarrels that further divide in the countries where they started.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen's Park press galler y.
